


The Meaning Of Family

by subspacecommunication (nattherat)



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Illustrated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 04:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8608933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nattherat/pseuds/subspacecommunication
Summary: Two weeks had passed since Seska awoke on the Marquis ship; aching, out of place, and out of cloaking. Two weeks since she was thrown into the Brig on board the USS Voyager. The alien Kes has visited every single day.





	

“Why must you do this?”

 

Two weeks had passed since Seska awoke on the Marquis ship; aching, out of place, and out of cloaking. Of course, she couldn't complain. Furious terran hands had only grabbed her for moments before the Federation crew, in their _infinite generosity_ since transporting them over, had thrown her in the Brig rather than set a firing squad upon her. Her uniform, cloaking device and hologram emitter immediately seized. The Federation outfit reserved for prisoners “covering” her now was humiliating – as was her lack of privacy – but at least she remained among the living. From information freely given by the creature chasing her tail, she gathered the same couldn't be said of many of the lifeforms once counted among the crew of both ships.

 

“Because I want to get to know you.”

 

Kes, as the child mammal had identified herself, was one of only three visitors Seska had seen since her imprisonment begun. Captain Kathryn Janeway, a Terran, and Tuvok had been the other two. Her lips had curled into a delighted smile when they came to speak with her. Oh, she had never suspected Tuvok exactly, and with B'Elanna and Chakotay being so eager to give up information, she'd always passed over the Vulcan. Yet the moment she saw the Starfleet uniform on him, the pieces fell into place. After they delivered her sentence of an indefinite stay in the Brig, her only visitor had been the small alien native to the Delta Quadrant. Kes had visited every day since, much to Seska's dismay.

 

“I am not interested.”

 

Seska had tried games at first. This malleable little animal was young, naïve, and Seska had cut down far bigger targets with words alone before. For all her efforts however, Kes had met every scathing remark with a cheerful reply, missing every implied threat – or deliberately ignoring it. The Cardassian had no intention of making an ally of the creature. As a civilian, she was no good to Seska anyway. Really, she just wanted the insufferable mouse to leave her be.

 

“Well, I think it would be nice. It must be lonely in here.”

 

Kes caught the end of Seska's tail, immediately raking her tiny digits through the filaments. Seska bit back a growl, and let her get on with it. The sooner begun, the sooner done. She tried not to wince with every twist of her tail mane.

 

 

“Contrary to what you seem to believe, I can enjoy my own company just fine.”

 

“I want to help you,” Kes replied, continuing her braid even as the Cardassian forced her to reach up high to do so. “I don't think imprisonment is the right answer.”

 

“You know nothing of which you speak,” Seska snarled. She flexed her talons. It was as much a threat as it was a genuine need to expel frustration. Without her uniform, she was also without her blades, without her stinger – but her claws would be more than adequate to gut a mouse.

 

“Well, I've been asking around,” Kes said with an unbearable smile, and Seska broke eye contact. “And I've heard about the treaty. So it isn't right that you're in the Brig, correct? Shouldn't you be working with the Starfleet officers?”

 

“You truly know so little,” Seska barked mirthlessly, pulling her tail from Kes's hands and looking at the creature in disbelief. “Do you really think I am in confinement solely because of my species? That if only a few crewmembers could look beyond misgivings about Cardassians, I could roam the corridors?!”

 

Infuriatingly, Kes didn't flinch at all. It was maddening. Seska shot to the floor, coiling around the alien in seconds, her teeth bared from her growl. She heard the Human security officer run to the forcefield and ready his phaser. Humans were slow. Unbelievably slow. She already held the creature's ribcage in one hand, digging the talons in enough to hurt, though not yet break the skin. Already had her head lowered and invading Kes's physical space, deciding her threats would no longer be _implied._

 

“Yes,” Kes answered easily, her smile growing even wider. She reached out her tiny arms, and patted Seska's snout. _That was it_ , the Cardassian decided, _an insufferable tiny animal with barely enough intelligence to be called sentient had succeeded where torturers of fifteen different societies had failed_. She was disarmed and undone. She could have survived for months, perhaps years, in the Brig without giving a single thing away to any Federation species, but this alien made her lose her temper.

 

Seska closed her grip, and drew herself up onto her hindlegs, towering over the human who had only just managed to line up his phaser, and held the creature between them.

 

“Captain Janeway. Bring her to me,” Seska hissed, letting a few choice droplets of venom escape from her jaw, “or _my sustenance today will be provided by this creature._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> I have been thinking about making my Seska (and Kes) stuff it's own fic collection for a while now, since I draw it a lot, so here we go!  
> I will try and make this a bit more traditionally structured (as in more like a complete fic than small snippets), but it will likely read more as a collection due to what it is (basically a series of episode companion pieces!).
> 
> For some extra info: this universe’s version of the Voyager Brig does not have a static bench/bed. Like the extra facilities that are concealed in the walls in the USS Enterprise-D Brig, Voyager’s Brig has many pieces that fold in and out of the walls to maximise the efficiency of the space. There are several bench pieces that can slide out as a result, to accommodate species of different sizes. This allows Seska to use one piece as a perch quite comfortably. Or at least as comfortably as being confined to a Brig can be.


End file.
